The present invention relates to an oscillatory driving mechanism. More particularly, it relates to a driving mechanism suitable for inclusion in a hand-held ultrasonic scanning transducer.
There have been, provided in the past, hand-held ultrasonic scanning transducer members wherein an oscillatory scanning motion is imparted to an ultrasonic transducer by means of a conventional rotational motor coupled to the scanning transducer by means of complex llinkage means. Although there are advantages to such rotational motor drive mechanisms, such as size, there are disadvantages to such mechanisms found, particularly, in the complexity of the coupling between the conventional rotary motor and the scanning transducer. Such complexities lead to, among other things, higher production costs of the instrument. The complexities of such previous devices have included means for approaching linear velocity of the scanning element during the course of each stroke. Also, in order to synchronize the scanning operation with the subsequent signal processing apparatus, it is necessary to know the instantaneous position of the scanning element during each stroke. Accordingly, there have been provided various techniques for sensing the instantaneous position of the scanning mechanism to provide corresponding signals.